Coke and Pepsi Agree to Stop Advertising to Children

Several months ago, we told you about the controversy surrounding Pepsi's youth marketing efforts in Mexico, where childhood obesity rates have been rising at alarming rates recently. The same trends hold true in many other Latin American countries, and other parts of the world that have only recently become inundated with cheap, high-fat, high-sugar junk foods produced by companies like PepsiCo. Now, it would appear that Coke and Pepsi are ready to enter a mutual disarmament pact of sorts, taking the first steps to put an end toward the marketing of junk food towards kids worldwide.

At the end of May, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo quietly agreed to voluntarily adopt the International Council of Beverages' Guidelines on Marketing to Children. The guidelines—which are an extension of a 2006 agreement to stop marketing in schools and product placement within children's entertainment—suggest an international end to advertising geared towards any audience composed mostly of children, whether it be TV, print, internet, or radio.

In the fast food world, McDonalds has already taken the lead in altering its products and youth marketing efforts to promote a healthier lifestyle to kids, but few of its competitors have followed. It will be interesting to see whether a partnership between the two cola powers has more of an effect on their competitors, and whether it births further efforts to reverse the damage that the junk food industry has done to childhood health in the past.

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I really doubt that Coke and Pepsi have anything to do with childhood obesity. Food matters a lot more than drinks. Coke and Pepsi are bad to drink, but they are not going to make you extremely obese. Fast food will make you obese.

I'm one of those who have always tried making most of food delivery services. I'm not a potato couch but on weekends when I do not want to miss a game of NBA or Ice Hockey then I have a couple of favorite Seattle food delivery services that I always count on to get me my most liked dishes well packed and tastes great.

It's a good initiative, although is quite late for many generations addicted to these kind of drinks. Still, it's absurd to think that stopping advertising to children will make then stop drinking coke or pep, while adults (or young adults) don't set that example. It's the whole society that needs a change on its food habits.

On the contrary, drinks can provide more calories to a daily diet than food. A person who consumes 3-4 cans of soft drink per day is going to add a calorie excess of over 10,000 calories per month. That's potentially an extra 3 pounds of fat added just from that.

The adoption of the guidelines follows similar principles outlined in the November 2006 Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. Those guidelines took effect Jan. 1 and were agreed to by a number of major food companies, including Coke and Pepsi, as well as McDonald’s, Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Soup Co., Kraft Foods, Kellogg, Unilever and others.

The terms require the marketers to tighten controls when marketing to kids under 12, such as not advertising in elementary schools, not engaging in product placement deals in entertainment content and devoting at least 50% of ads to promote healthier dietary choices.